As the rain continues to fall, I have invited RSPB Cumbria Area Manager, Bill Kenmir, to offer his perspective on the floods that have hit the north west of England.
I live in Kendal and saw at first hand a relatively small part of the tragedy in Cumbria as it unfolded over the weekend. The relentlessness of the rainfall, the river Kent growing in anger and ferocity as it thundered its way through the town, eventually the overtopping its embankments with such devastating force. Then the next day there was an eerie quiet in the affected areas, the river calmer and the absence of traffic noise set a strange mood over the town. While those directly affected were taking stock of the damage to their lives, their homes and their businesses.
These events have previously been billed as once in a lifetime but Cumbria has suffered three devastating floods in the last decade. The rules appear to have changed. We now have to accept that this type of rainfall event will happen again with perhaps even greater frequency.
Cumbria needs time to recover, people need to rebuild their lives. Major infrastructure work to rebuild the washed away bridges, damaged roads and buildings needs to be undertaken.
From what I witnessed last weekend, I don’t believe we will ever be able to fully protect ourselves from future “unprecedented” events. In due course, we will all need to come together, to re-think our approach to water management. This will require further investment in flood defences for those communities at risk but we also need careful consideration as to how we manage water in the wider landscape in a way that reduces pressure on our downstream defences.
Following the flood events in the winter of 2013/14 in the South West, there was a coming together of communities, flood victims, engineers, scientists, economists, conservationists, government advisers and farmers. A forward looking report "Flooding in Focus" was produced and has helped to ensure the dialogue remains ongoing and everyone remains united on the need to work together to find a way through.
Cumbrians are resilient and practical, they too will come together to rebuild and then will look to the future.
I'm not so pessimistic - I don't believe the problem is physical so much as our complete inability to change our institutions to meet new circumstances and that is really frightening - and writ large today by a Government that talks the talk about action on climate change and walks the walk by slashing support to renewable energy and on top of that, today, increasing VAT to 20% while fossil fuels are still at 5% !
George Monbiot pointed out the physical reality: one river did not go wild because it had already been rewilded - the river Liza through Ennerdale in a project dating back to the early 2000s and led by Forest Enterprise England has had its engineering removed and been allowed to spread across its flood plain - which contained the worst of the surge. George also pointed out that new thinking from the Government's advisers, EA and NE, has not just been ignored but expunged from the public record, with reports withdrawn, pulped and removed from the web.